Atrium

An open, interior, sky-lit court usually located at the center of a building and often surrounded by multiple stories. Usually featuring galleries, balconies, or arcades, an atrium (plural: atria) frequently is enclosed by a glass roof. The term is derived from the Latin word “atrium” for the central courtyard often found in Roman houses. In ancient Rome, atria were distinguished into subgroups that described features such as column type, roof slope, and size of the opening. Before the twentieth century, atrium was also synonymous with cemetery or churchyard. Today, atria offer modern buildings a feeling of openness and a means of admitting natural light into interior spaces, and often ‘borrowed scenery’.